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Anyone can take steps to reduce their carbon footprint in the environment anywhere at almost any time, says Patrick Carolan, the new executive director of the Franciscan Action Network.

Specific, practical ideas on how to do that will be discussed during a two-hour webcast called “Creativity for Creation” that the network is sponsoring beginning at 7 p.m. EST, Jan. 26.

Carolan said the ideas are being offered because the federal government has failed to adopt climate change legislation that sets limits on greenhouse gas emissions.

“What happens is a lot is people look at a problem and see it’s so large and say, ‘What can I do about it?’ But there are actions people can take to reduce their carbon footprint. The goal, of course, is to get people to begin to take action and bring to their own communities these actions,” Carolan said.

“We want to give people ideas to start carrying out the message that St. Francis and St. Clare gave us about caring for creation,” he added.

Panelists during the webcast, which will originate at the Washington Theological Seminary, include Riobart Breen, a secular Franciscan and assistant professor of political science at Siena College; Franciscan Sister Caryn Crook, Franciscan ecology coordinator at her order’s Spirituality and Nature Center, Fayetteville, N.Y.; Stacey Kennealy, certification program and sustainability director at GreenFaith, New Brunswick, N.J.; Joelle Novey, executive director of Greater Washington Interfaith Power and Light; and Fran Teplitz, social investing and strategic outreach director at Green America, Washington.

The Franciscan Action Network describes itself as “a grass-roots, faith-based civic engagement organization with a growing national base of organizations and persons who are inspired by the witness and example of St. Francis and St. Clare of Assisi.”